


Proditio

by shadowhuntersloverforever



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Law Enforcement, Angst, Blindspot AU, F/M, M/M, Plot Twists, Post-Max Lightwood's Death, Slow Burn, Suspense, tiny fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 21:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14293731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowhuntersloverforever/pseuds/shadowhuntersloverforever
Summary: AU. The entire New York Office is thrown in a different world when a naked man with tattoos all over him crawls out of a bag in the middle of Times Square. The man has no recollection of how he got there or who he is. The man is a mystery and so are his tattoos. Being dropped on the FBI's radar because of his tattoos, it is now up to Special Agent Alec Lightwood to solve this mystery and find out who wiped out the man's memory, tattooed him and dropped him in a bag in the middle of Times Square.





	Proditio

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody. This is my first time writing a fic for this fandom. This has being festering in my mind for quite some time so I finally decided to put it down on print. Thank you to my lovely friend  
> 

 

New York is a beautiful city. It’s fast paced and people live the fast track life here, no one seems to ever slow down. The only time you’ll ever see New York slow is probably through the Facebook page Humans of New York. One of the attractions of the city is Times Square. Times Square is probably the busiest part of New York and you will see all kinds of human beings there.

 

 It was your typical Wednesday with Times Square being jam packed with people. A police officer was going around and making sure all the bustlers and street performers had their permits. He was walking on when he suddenly saw a grey duffle bag in the middle of the pavement; he asked a few people around if the bag belonged to them. He cautiously approached the bag and saw a tag hanging. It said **CALL THE FBI** and had a Latin expression on it. The officer called his supervisor and then the entire Times Square was being evacuated and the bomb squad was waiting by. As soon as the entire square was roped off from the public, a lone bomb squad member with a radiation reader slowly but steadily approached the bag.

 

“No signs of radiation from the bag. I’m now going to touch the bag and feel it for wires.”

 

He places the reader next to him and slowly reaches out to the bag to open the zipper.

* * *

 

In a suburban area of Kentucky, an FBI raid team quietly await a signal and are ready in position to barge into the house in view. Special Agent Alec Lightwood signals one of his partners to cover him and asks the other to follow him. They silently enter the house and Jace goes to the living room to clear the area while Alec and Izzy go upstairs. Music is being played loudly so that made it easier for them to climb up the stairs without being discovered. They reached the first floor and could see a man half naked standing in front of a girl – not older than 13 – handcuffed to the radiator pipes. Izzy goes to another room to see if anybody else is there while Alec slowly creeps up behind the man and points his gun at the man's head.

 

“Drop your weapon immediately and raise your hands in the air right now. There’s no escaping this. You are under arrest.”

“Not so fast.”

The pedophile turns around in a flash and shoots Alec in his vest. Since it was a close range hit, the pain hits him and Alec stumbles back on to the banister and he falls to the ground. Izzy on hearing the shot runs back and shoots the man in his shoulder before he could shoot the girl. Jace runs to Alec and helps him up.

“Dude you okay?”

“Yeah. The bullet made me stumble. It’s gonna be a bad bruise. Anyway let’s get out of here. IZZY, Jace is going to get the suspect. You get the victims out alright.”

 

Alec walks out of the house and goes to talk to the rest of the SWAT team on standby. He gingerly removes the bulletproof vest and lifts his t-shirt up to see the damage. There is a massive bruise on his bottom rib. The rib might be cracked. He wears the vest again so that his ribs isn’t jostled much. He sees Jace push the suspect into a car and along with Izzy, three girls of around 12 came out, one girl of 18 who was carrying a baby who was about nearly a year old. Cases like these made him feel sick to the core. Izzy walks up to him and puts her hands on his ribs to assess whether it’s broken or not. Izzy worked as relief aid in Kandahar before joining the FBI academy.

 

“I don’t think you cracked your ribs. Still you’ll get an X-ray done. Do not take risks.”

 

Before Alec could reply, a helicopter flew in and landed. He saw a desk agent from the New York office step out. The agent runs up to him.

 

“Sir there has been a critical situation in New York, the Lightwoods are needed back there.”

 

Izzy, Jace and Alec quickly make their way into the helicopter and they reach New York in an hour’s time. Instead of going to the office, the helicopter lands on the helipad of the Belle Vue Hospital. He sees Assistant Director Robert Lightwood standing by the elevator. Izzy, being slightly irritated at not having much information, questions her father about everything.

 

“At 9 pm this evening, a police officer found an unidentified duffle bag in the middle of Times Square. There was a tag that said Call the FBI and a Latin phrase which translated to The Great. The square was evacuated and the bomb squad checked the bag but found no radiation from it. He was about to open the bag when the bag opened up from the inside and a fully naked man covered in tattoos all over stepped out of the bag. He has been brought to this hospital to be checked out. He doesn’t seem to remember anything.”

 

This seemed to baffle everyone because it wasn’t everyday that a naked man full of tattoos climbed out of a bag in the middle of Times Square. All of them ride down the elevator and meet the doctor in charge. The doctor takes them to a lab which had some charts on the light.

 

“Special Agent Lightwood there is an experimental drug called the PKM Zeta or the ZIP. The Zeta Interacting Protein when sparingly used erases selective memories. This is used by people who suffer from intense PTSD.”

 

“So traces have been found in this man?”

 

“No his system is flooded with ZIP and he is in a chemically induced state of amnesia. Now since the dose is high, there’s a chance that this is permanent and he may never remember anything. But then again familiar things might trigger them.”

 

This was unheard of. The three Lightwoods follow their father to a corridor which overlooks a room. Inside the room handsome Asian man is sitting in a patient gown and trying to understand what’s going on. Robert turns his head.

 

“Alec, do you know who that man is?”

"No. I’ve never seen him in my life ever. Who is he?”

 

Robert doesn’t say anything and knocks on the glass. The two agents grab the man, turn him around and open his gown. Jace sharply inhales while Izzy mumbles something along the lines of what the fuck? Alec however cannot react much because he is shocked. On the man’s back is a very large tattoo that says

**ALEC LIGHTWOOD**

**F.B.I D01101987**

**__________________________________________**

**_Alec_ **

What? Why is my name tattooed on the man’s back along with my badge number? This isn’t public information. I have never seen this man ever in my life and yet my name is tattooed on his back. What the hell is happening? I turn around and face my siblings.

 

“Jace, Izzy. Do you know this man? Have you seen him? Anywhere?”

“No big bro. This is the first time I’ve ever seen this man. These tattoos must mean something right? I mean people generally get tattoos to symbolise something. What if this is a message?”

 

I nod in agreement. It must mean something. But if someone was sending a message, then why kidnap someone, wipe their memory and tattoo all over their body?

 

“Alec, Izzy and Jace. Head back to the office and then start building the case.”

 

We immediately leave the hospital and after the initial examination, the John Doe was sent to the office. I gather every single personnel there around the ops center.

 

“As you know that a man crawled out of a bag in the middle of Times Square with no identity with tattoos all over him. Izzy and Jace are on my case histories. Comb through my files and see if I have missed any information. Double check everything. As for others, go through every single case that has entered this office. See if anything connects to this man. As for Lewis, take the John Doe to the lab. Take pictures of the tattoos, scan him, take prints, DNA, blood and also start on a genealogy chart and try tracing anything about him. Okay? Let’s get to work people.”

 

I look at the monitors trying to figure out how the bag was dropped on the pavement. If it were me doing the drop, I’d use a big van and the side door to stay away from the cameras.

 

“Izzy can you check the CCTV cameras from Times Square? I want to see how the bag reached there. If it were me I’d use a  big van with a side door.”

 

Izzy quickly started typing on the keyboard. She has always been really good at her job. I feel slightly in control of the situation because I have Jace and Izzy working with me.

 

“Alec as usual 75% of the cameras are either out of commission or out of focus. Still I managed to view a camera which caught a glimpse of a van. They used the side door. I tried following it through the CCTV network, it enters a lane around 20 miles from Times Square and doesn’t leave it. Are you ever tired of being right?”

 

I smirk at her and then I take her with him to the lab where Lewis, I mean Simon's working. I see him photographing the man and taking his prints. The man seems to be flinching every time Simon touches his arm or fingers to print him.  

 

“Why do you flinch every time Lewis takes your fingerprints?”

 

The man jumped and nearly fell at my voice. Maybe I shouldn’t have startled him.

 

“The tattoos are a bit sore. I think they haven’t healed yet.”

 

Simon furrows his brows at that and asks the man to step into the scanner. It was a long and tedious process, so I left and went to the office to oversee agents who were preparing for the polygraph and his interview. Now not to be bragging, but I can see the patterns in case and how things play out. But this doesn’t make any sense to me. This going to be a long and arduous case. So many tattoos and they all mean something, but what? Why are the tattoos of any significance to the FBI? Why was he dropped on me with my name on him? While I was lost in thought John Doe was brought into the interrogation room. He was strapped in with the wires and the process began. I switched on the recording system so that I could hear them.

 

**“Please answer all the questions with a yes or a no. Please state your name for the record.”**

_“I... I don’t know...”_

**“When were you born?”**

_“I don’t know.”_

**“Where were you born?”**

_“I don't know.”_

**“Were you ever involved with a terrorist organisation in your past?”**

_“I DON’T KNOW OKAY!? I don’t know. I don’t know who I am, where I am, who I’ve been with. I’ve let you people poke me, prod_

_me, scan me, photograph me. I AM DONE WITH THIS. Find me someone in charge. Get me WHOEVER IS IN CHARGE.”_

 

The person who was doing the polygraph looked at the mirror. It was time for me to go in there. Before going to the interrogation room, I went to Lewis’ lab to get a picture of the tattoo which has my name on it.

 

“Hey Alec”

 

“Yes Simon?”

 

“The tattoos on Magnus are very recent, around 5 days old. So you might wanna tell the agents not to grab his arms too tight.”

 

“Magnus?”

 

“Yeah, I named him. The Latin phrase for The Great was written on the duffle bag, so instead of calling him John Doe I thought it’d be better to give him a name, as a sign of grounding, so he wouldn’t seem too lost.”

 

I warily nodded at him and walked away. _Magnus_ …

 

The name did sound better than John Doe. It does kind of suit him. This man has an interesting personality. Even when he is surrounded by unknown people and is tested upon, he stands his ground. I’ll need to speak with the doctor about his faculties. I walk into the interrogation room. John Doe... I mean Magnus looks at me like someone’s offered him a get out of jail card.

 

“Are you in charge? Did you find anything? Do you know who I am?”

 

“No not yet. But we are certain that you are telling the truth.”

 

“Why would I... Anyway. All these tests and you guys found nothing? Not a single thing?”

 

“Sir you apparently don’t exist. There’s no match to your fingerprints in any of our databases. We ran your DNA through CODIS. No match. In fact facial recognition didn’t match you anywhere.”

 

“Oh. What is happening to me? Why did someone do this to me?”

 

“We don’t know but we are working to figure it out. Sir. Do you know me?”

 

“Why would I know you? Am I supposed to know you?”

 

“The reason I’m asking is because my name Alec Lightwood has been tattooed on your back.” I pass him a photograph of his back. He grabs it and runs his finger over it trying to make sense. He looks at me with more helplessness in his eyes.

 

“Sir, the doctor said that if you are exposed to familiar stimuli, then it my trigger your memory. So please try. Please try to remember anything or see if you remember me.”

 

He slightly raises his hands and touches my palm. Slowly he feels my hand and my face like a blind man would. After few more seconds he retracts his hands. He doesn’t remember anything.

 

“Alec, what is going to happen now?”

 

“We are going to release a clean image of you to the media. Someone might know you.”

 

“No. I mean what happens now. I don’t know who I am. I don’t know where to go, I have nowhere to go.”

 

Uh. That was something we didn’t think of. Since he isn’t under arrest, we can’t keep him in the cells here. The only other option is protective custody or safe house. There is one loft in Brooklyn. It will be best if we keep him there.

 

“Magnus, there’s a safe house in Brooklyn. You’ll be placed there for the time being.”

 

“Magnus? Is that my name? You just said that you didn’t find anything.”

 

“Uh. No. The bag you were found in had a Latin phrase _magni_ written on it. So Simon, our lab head, decided to name you Magnus, to give you a sense of grounding?”

 

“Oh.”

 

I nod at him and leave the interrogation room. I meet Izzy and Jace in the office. Their faces said that they didn’t find a single connection. God this puzzle is going to be difficult to solve. Wait..... Puzzles. This is a puzzle. He is the board and the tattoos are puzzle pieces for the bigger picture.

 

“Jace get dad into the conference hall and Izzy ask Simon to bring in some of the pictures for the TV.”

 

Everyone gathers in the the conference room quickly and I pull up all the pictures on the TV.

 

“Whoever did this to the man loves puzzles. This is a game for them. His entire body is a treasure map with no X marking the spot. These tattoos are clues to finding the treasure and the bigger picture. No one knows what is it and the first clue has been solved. My name. The name was tattooed to get him under the FBI’s radar. The people behind this wants us to solve each and every tattoo and find out what’s going on. Anyway. It’s late tonight, so I think it’ll be best if we get some sleep and regroup tomorrow. Izzy could you please take Magnus to the safe house in Brooklyn on your way home.”

 

She nodded at me and both Simon and Izzy walked out. It’s weird to come to terms with the fact that my badass sister went for the uber nerd. Well as long as she is happy. I walk out of the conference room and was on my way to the lockers when I see them having a heated discussion about a house or something. Is there something wrong with the safehouse? I walk up to them.

 

“Is everything alright with the both of you? Is there something wrong with the safehouse?”

 

Simon blinks and says, “What safehouse? I’m trying to save my house because Izzy is wanting to cook dinner for Rebecca tonight. I want the house safe.”

 

Something feels slightly off. Simon has never spoken that fast without unnecessarily rambling. I guess it must be the stress from the case.

 

“Izzy we love you but please don’t cook. We need Simon in the lab now. He can’t be out with food poisoning.”

 

“That was ONE TIME Alec. One time.”

 

“I’m not risking it. And now I’m gonna go home and sleep. Goodnight.”

 

“Goodnight Alec and please get an ice pack for your ribs. I know how much you like playing macho. If I see that they haven’t healed, I’ll break them myself.” Izzy sweetly smiles at me. I glare at her and leave. Little sisters are annoying but it’s more annoying when you have to obey them because you know they can hand you your derrière.

* * *

 

I’ve been pouring over the cases for some time when I felt someone standing beside me. I looked up and saw dad reading the files over my shoulder. I hand him some of the files and continue reading through them. Looking upon the pictures nothing jumps out and I grab some photographs from Dad. I was looking at the photos of Magnus’ torso which was impressive really. The only thing that baffled me was that while all the tattoos were kind of translucent, only one was opaque. A patch on his upper arm, right below his shoulder. Maybe I could ask Simon to deep scan the tattoo and find out what’s underneath that patch.

 

“Dad I’m gonna go talk to Simon about this black patch. Maybe he can run it through and find something. I’m pretty sure this patch is hiding something related to his identity.”

 

He nodded at me and I left his office. I made my way down to the lab and saw Simon rushing towards me.

 

“Alec I found a black patch. On his shoulder. The only opaque tattoo out of all translucent ones.”

 

“Yeah that’s why I’m here. I just came across this and wanted to ask you if you could deep scan these.”

 

“Yeah. I’ll dial it back down to the infrared channels and see if I find something.”

 

From the corner I see Izzy bring in Magnus to the lab.

 

“Iz, I thought we were meeting at my office.”

 

“Yeah no, the psychologist thought it would be better for him to see all this.”

 

Magnus steps towards the screen and sees all the pictures of his tattoos. He sees them with a veracious hunger. Then he points to a tattoo that’s behind his ear.

 

“That’s in Chinese. It’s an address and date. Today’s date. It says Greenland Building apartment C.”

 

“You speak Chinese?” Simon asks him.

 

“Seems like it cause I just translated it.”

 

Okay. He is sassy. Speaks Chinese. Maybe this will help us understand him.

 

“Greenland Building is the heart of Chinatown, registered to a Chao Zheng. He is a Chinese national, here on a H1-B visa. He is an electrical engineer and works for GE.”

 

“Okay, let’s head out to Chinatown.”

 

“I will go with you.”

 

“No Magnus you won’t. You will stay here in protective custody.”

 

“Am I under arrest? If not, then I’m going. I speak the language and you don’t. That man has something to do with the tattoos on me. He might know something. Please let me go.”

 

I look at dad. He nods his head and Magnus follows me out. It takes us about roughly 45 minutes to reach Chinatown. Izzy, Jace and I leave the car with Magnus about to follow us out.

 

“No. You’re not going up with us sir. Your life will be in potential danger. Jace look after him.”

 

Before the both of them could answer, I slammed the door shut and walk to the apartment. Izzy and I find apartment C and knock on it.

 

“CHAO ZHENG. THIS IS THE FBI. OPEN THE DOOR.”

 

The door opens but it is not Chao who opens it. It seems that Chao had a roommate, who only speaks Chinese. Izzy gives me a pointed look.

 

“Yes I’m gonna go get him.”

 

Jace on seeing me from the suburban gets out and opens Magnus’ door. Magnus comes up to me and with a smirk exclaims

 

“Did you forget something?”

 

I sigh and ask them to follow me upstairs. Magnus enters the apartment before me and immediately starts translating.

 

“Alec, he says that he forgot about it. He was busy with university and work that he didn’t bother checking his passport and visa. He is a hard working man and can’t afford to be sent back to China.”

 

“Who said anything..  Ask him about Chao. That’s what I’m looking for.”

 

He translates the question back to the man.

 

“He says that he hasn’t seen Chao since last morning. That red door is the door to Chao's bedroom.”

 

“Okay. Thanks Magnus. You can wait outside now.”

 

I slightly push him out of the door and tell Jace to knock the door down. On entering his room, we find a lab setup.

 

“Meth?”

 

“No. Not enough ventilation. This smells like sulphur and there’s saw dust. Plastic bombs. Chao was making plastic bombs.”

 

“So the good citizen isn’t so good after all.”

 

“Izzy, stop and get into that laptop will you?”

 

While Izzy is cracking the laptop, Jace and I look around the room to find any clues about where Chao was going to use the bombs.

 

“What the fuck? Nothing's happening.”

 

“What’s wrong Izzy?”

 

“The entire laptop has been wiped clean. There’s nothing but a timer for a video file set to upload in 4 hours.”

 

“Play it.”

 

“It’s in Chinese.”

 

Rolling my eyes, I go to get Magnus. He is not here but there's shouting from the floors below. I walk down the stairs and see Magnus beating the crap out of a man. He is extremely powerful in hand to hand combat. He has to be specially trained.

 

“Magnus... Magnus stop. Stop.”

 

I grab him and press him against the wall.

 

“What happened Magnus?”

 

“I-I-I don’t know. Uh. That one was roughing up his wife and the other one suddenly came and attacked me. I just wanted to help. Is he..... Alec is he dead.... Oh god did I kill someone?”

 

“Magnus calm down. Calm down. The man isn’t dead. We’ll call him an ambulance.”

 

I hold his hands and see his bruised knuckles. He _has_ to be specially trained. No amateur can pack this strong of a punch. I take him upstairs to translate the video. Magnus takes a shaky breath and glances at his knuckles. He then looks at the video.

 

“He says 'Today's action, the jackal politician, the mother of exiles' is just the start. America has ignored Chinese suffering for too long. America sits back and savours it’s freedom while atrocities are committed and families are destroyed. Today America has felt the pain of loss and suffering. Today the reckoning has begun.”

 

Chao spoke in past tense. Does this mean he’s going to use the explosives to attack a politician?

 

“Izzy how long till the video uploads?”

 

“Three and a half hours.”

 

“Guys we have three and a half hours to stop Chao before he blows something up. Let’s move.”

 

I grab Magnus' arm and drag him with me. I call dad up to see his input.

 

“Dad I think the only politician who can be a target is Senator Judith Moore. I mean she is pro immigration and pro Chinese trade. It lines up with mother of exiles”

 

“It does. Meanwhile his emails are in a rare dialect called Wenzhou. People call it the Devil’s Language.”

 

“Send it to Jace’s tablet. Magnus can try and translate it. Simon I need a location on Chao.”

 

“He’s trying to root the phone. Hold on a second. Chao is in Brooklyn. Flatbush and Livingston headed west.”

 

I cut the call and get into the car. Jace starts driving and  I hand his tablet to Magnus. He starts reading through the email immediately. Magnus is dedicated. He has been conditioned to stay calm under pressure. He must have had great training to keep his bearings to himself.

 

“Alec..”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Where did I learn how to fight like that?”

 

“Those were some serious moves. You don’t receive that training at a local dojo.”

 

He nods his head and gets back to work. As the car reaches Flatbush underground station, Izzy spots him. Jace and I rush to get out of the car while Izzy stays back with Magnus, Jace and I following him underground and we wait by the pillars to keep an eye on him. Suddenly Chao looks up and sees me and gets onto the train.

 

“Jace we’ve been made. Get on the train.”

 

“Okay.”

 

We follow Chao but only up till two wagons because he disconnects it in the middle of the tunnel and there’s C4 stuck to the train.

 

“Jace, get in there and get all the people to the end of the wagon.”

 

“Okay but what the hell are you going to do?”

 

I pull the C4 off the train and smirk at him

 

“I’m going to save lives.”

 

I pull the C4 off the timer as much as I can to minimise the explosion and I throw it as far as possible and start running. It explodes and my vision fades to black.

**_\----####----_ **

I wake up to Jace screaming for me.

 

“Alec are you okay!? What on earth were you thinking?”

 

“I’m fine. A little banged up. Let’s get back to the car. Chao has started to improvise.”

 

As soon as we get out onto the street, Izzy rushes to us both and hugs us tightly, only to pull back and land a punch on my arm. Fuck, that girl can sure pack a punch.

 

“IZZY! What the fuck?”

 

“I expect Jace to be running with bombs not you! You’re supposed to be the responsible one.”

 

“Izzy, I love you and all but we don’t have much time. Chao is nervous. He is improvising. We need to find what the actual target is.”

 

“Magnus might have found out why.”

 

I look towards him. He reads through a couple more emails.

 

“He just found out that his mother was killed in a Chinese prison camp.  He and his sister have been begging the US government to get her released but they didn’t.”

 

His mother. That’s it. Seeing my face Jace questions me.

 

“His mother. His mother is the clue. Mother of exiles. It’s from a poem. ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses’. It’s on a plaque. On the city’s biggest tourist attraction. Chao’s gonna blow up the Statue of Liberty.”

 

Having no time to waste, we rush to the car and Jace starts driving. Pulling my phone out, I dial dad’s number.

 

“Alec any updates?”

 

“Chao is gonna blow up Statue of Liberty. Stop all ferries and start evacuation.”

 

“Okay, I’m preparing to send in the order. The Mayor had a small event at the Statue today but was pulled out to deal with the subway explosion.”

 

“That lines up with jackal politician.”

 

“Yes and another thing. You were right. The black patch was obscuring another tattoo. An eagle holding a trident and anchor. He might have been a SEAL.”

 

“That would be consistent with few things.”

 

“Okay. Head to Liberty Island. Back up will meet you there.”

 

Jace hits the lights and what would normally takes twenty five minutes to reach was completed in ten. Upon reaching the port, it was surrounded by park rangers. We got off the car and wore our bulletproof vests. Magnus also rushed out of the car.

 

“Where the hell are you going Magnus?”

 

“I saw the map on Izzy’s tablet. Liberty Island is fourteen acres. You have three agents. You need another set of eyes. You know that I can help Alec. I cannot let that man kill innocent people and if he knows anything about me..”

 

“Fine. But you stay with me.”

 

Magnus nods and grabs the extra vest from the trunk and follows me. We board the ferry and head towards the island.

 

“Izzy search the crowd. Chao was wearing a blue hoodie. Jace you are on perimeter and have the rangers cover the exits. Make sure that he doesn’t leave. Magnus and I will head inside the statue and clear it out.”

 

We split ways and go about the island. Magnus and I enter the statue with me aiming my gun in front of the two of us and slowly walk through the corridor. There’s a park ranger kneeling on the ground.

 

“Ranger, I’m with the FBI.”

 

The ranger turns with a gun in his hand. _Shit_.

 

It’s Chao and he shoots, the bullet aiming towards Magnus and hitting its target as the man lets out a piercing scream and falls to this knees on the ground.

 

“Magnus! Magnus!” Trying not to outwardly panic from what just happened, I return my gaze to Chao and force my face to  become blank, impassive.

 

“You’ve been hit. Keep pressure on the wound. It’s likely a graze but add the pressure, it'll keep you from bleeding out.”

 

“Alec, I’m fine. I’m fine. You get him please.”

 

I nod at him and leave him there after checking that yes, he was following my advice and leaving pressure on the wound. I announce into the comms about Chao and start climbing up the stairs; it takes me some time to reach the top of the statue. Huh, it’s empty. I was about to turn when something propels into me and my gun falls from my hand.

 

_Chao_.

 

He tries to strangle me but I use my elbow to hit him in his ribs causing him to fall back and he proceeds to take out a knife. He swings it at me wildly but I’m able to move out of the knife’s path. Not watching the man’s feet, he trips me and holds the knife to my throat. He was about to begin to slice my skin open when I hear a gunshot. I look up. It’s Magnus pointing the gun at Chao.

 

“Drop the gun or else I will kill him.”

 

I chuckle. Magnus is most probably a seal. He can shoot Chao without hitting me.

 

“He won’t do that Chao. If you kill me, he will kill you. This is no way to honour your mother.”

 

Chao pressed the knife a little harder into the skin, drawing a bit of blood. Magnus looks unsure but I nod at him. He then takes a deep breath and shoots. Just as I expected, it hits Chao in his shoulder and he falls down with a scream. I look at Magnus and see his eyes are glazed over. I go up to him and take my gun from him.

 

“Alec, I remember something.”

 

I was going to ask him what but due to the bullet graze, he passes out. I hold him to me and point my gun at Chao while backup arrives.

______________________________________

After reaching the headquarters, Magnus is taken to the infirmary and patched up, Izzy goes with him to know what he remembered. I head to the locker room to clean up the mess from the explosion. After freshening up, I head to the conference room where Dad, Izzy and Jace are already waiting there. Dad nods at me.

 

“There’s no doubt that Magnus is special forces or intelligence trained. His skill set is specialised. High-level language abilities, hand to hand proficiency is off the charts and his marksmanship under pressure is remarkable. He’s professional. He saved my life today.”

 

Izzy stands up.

 

“He recovered a memory. Something about running an outdoor course. It’s a fragment but it lines up with what we all saw

today.”

 

Dad shakes his head and asks the question which we’ve all been asking.

 

“Who is this man?”

 

“I don’t know yet.”

 

I turn to the screen which had all his tattoos on display.

 

“But I do know this: one of these tattoos helped save a hundred lives today and he’s covered in them. He might be the most important resource we have. I still don’t get why. I mean, if our unsub is a good guy who wanted us to stop Chao, why not call it in? Why go to such great lengths to kidnap Magnus, erase his memory and tattoo him?”

 

Dad looks at me and points at the screen

 

“These tattoos are as big a mystery as Magnus is. We have no way of knowing where they’ll lead, but we’ll keep him out in the field. He triggered his first memory and we got to know about his abilities. We are one step closer to finding out who he really is.”

 

I nod my head in agreement.

 

“Well one thing’s for sure. Someone likes playing games and this is just the beginning.”

 

Dad dismisses us and we all leave the conference room.

 

Outside Jace waits for me to catch up.

 

“Magnus has been taken back to the loft and Izzy left to go get Simon. Wanna head down to Hunter’s Moon?”

 

“Not tonight Jace. I’m exhausted and I’m not carrying any files home today.”

 

Jace chuckles and bids me goodnight. I grab my stuff from the locker room and head straight for the garage. Fifteen minutes later I’m home. I grab a sandwich from the fridge and inhale it. Then I head straight to my bedroom and strip down to my boxers and go off to sleep.

* * *

 

Magnus had just gotten out of the shower when he saw someone in his room.

 

“What are you doing here? Did you use the window to enter?”

 

“Let’s not waste time by discussing that and keep your voice down. I’m going to give you a high dosage of lorazepam to help

you speed up the process.”

 

“ _What_? No! No drugs.”

 

“Its gonna prick a bit.”

 

Magnus feels the pinch and the effect of the drug starts to kick in immediately. His eyes flutter and gaze becomes unfocused before falling forwards to the floor and stays there for fifteen minutes. He blinks his eyes open and he shakes his head, looking around and slowly gets up.

 

“Do you remember Magnus?”

 

“I remember everything.”

  



End file.
